‘I keep nothing like that in the office,’ Sholto asserted.
Briefly, Molly focused on the carved oriental drinks cabinet with a confused frown and then she poured herself a cup of tea because of course she hadn’t been serious about the alcohol. Sholto extended the plate of toast. ‘No, thanks.’
‘Be sensible,’ Sholto told her drily.
Molly took a piece of toast, wondering why he was so ridiculously keen to see her eat, but she was under too much strain to make an issue of it.
Silence fell while she ate.
‘I don’t want you to go home tonight.’
Molly almost choked on her last piece of toast, coughed and then swallowed with difficulty. ‘Are you crazy?’
A winged ebony brow rose. ‘I’ll make arrangements for a temp to take over your job for a month at my expense. That’ll give your employer time to find a replacement—’
‘I couldn’t leave Mr Woods in the lurch like that. I have to work a month’s notice!’ Molly protested in pure panic.
‘Any experienced legal secretary could do your work.’
‘Sholto—’
‘If you move in today, I’ll drive down and see Nigel tomorrow morning. The longer it takes you to move in, the longer he will wait to have his mind set at rest.’ Sholto spelt out that cruel reality without an ounce of discomfiture. ‘We don’t have a deal until you are physically in residence.’
Molly paled, thinking of the desperate state her brother had been in the night before, reluctantly recalling how disturbed she had been that Nigel had left Lena alone all day to worry about his whereabouts. ‘But I—’
‘I’ll have professional packers into your apartment by Monday at the latest.’
Feeling as though he was taking over her whole life, Molly bridled. ‘No…that’s quite unnecessary.’
‘Allow me to decide what’s necessary.’ Sholto drew her up out of her seat and lifted a seemingly idle hand to trace the stiff compression of her lips with a reproving fingertip.
Molly shivered and tossed her head back out of reach, skittish as a racehorse at the starting line. He closed his hands round her narrow wrists and drew her inexorably closer. ‘Let go of me,’ she told him tightly.
Brilliant dark eyes inspected her mutinous face. ‘Unwilling sacrifices don’t attract me, cara.’
‘What did you expect?’
‘I don’t know.’ A self-mocking smile tugged unexpectedly at the corners of his wide, sensual mouth. ‘I have to confess that I didn’t think that far ahead.’
Mere inches separated them and yet nothing short of physical force could have made Molly retreat from the proximity of that lean, powerful body of his. The very scent of him…clean, warm and male…sentenced her to paralysed stillness. As she stared up at him, dry throat convulsing, heart banging like crazy against her ribs, he closed his arms round her. Her eyes flew wide, a soft sound of shock escaping her as the rigid thrust of his arousal pressed against her belly. A surge of liquid heat flared between her thighs and he slid his hands down to her hips, hitching her skirt to lift her up against him and claim her mouth in a shatteringly sexual kiss.
He kissed with the same breathtaking eroticism with which he made love. The world spun violently as he let his tongue delve in a sinuous flick between her lips and tease the sensitive interior within. An anguished moan of response was dredged from low in her throat. Her bones turned to water, her flesh to yielding pliancy as she wrapped her arms round his neck. He slid her down to the carpet again but kept her imprisoned with one powerful hand splayed across her spine and then he lifted his dark head.
His eyes blazed like golden arrows in his lean, hard-boned face. ‘Dio…you looked as wholesome as Joan of Arc about to burn at the stake when you walked in here—’
‘Sholto—’
He gazed down at her with sudden vibrant amusement. ‘All temptingly packaged from throat to mid-calf in shapeless green tweed. Alas my memory is not so short, cara. I shall forever cherish the image of you sliding out of my T-shirt.’
At the same instant as he set her back from him, Molly’s hands came up to push him away. The turbulence of her confused emotions was threatening to rip her apart. He
had swept her up like a toy and kissed her breathless and she hadn’t done a thing to prevent him. In the aftermath, she didn’t even know how it had happened and that terrified her. He had smashed her self-control with effortless ease.
‘Revenge has got nothing to do with this,’ Sholto drawled very quietly. ‘And I did not bring you here with any intent of humiliating you. The past doesn’t come into this either. It’s dead and gone but we’re not. I’ve wanted you ever since that snowy night at Freddy’s house…’
‘And what you want you have to have,’ Molly extended, her throat thickening. ‘No matter what the cost.’
He swept up his mobile phone, scanning her with impenetrable eyes. ‘Let’s just say I don’t mind paying for the privilege of your presence but I would have respected you a whole lot more if you had come of your own accord and without preconditions.’